Clothes dryer



y 1955 w. L. MOIRRISON 2,707,337

CLOTHES DRYER Filed March 8. 1949 2 Shets-$heet 1 [nvenior Z az Mar -1, .5072

United States PatentO CLOTHES DRYER Willard L. Morrison, Lake Forest, Ill.

Application March 8, 1949, Serial No. 80,184 1 Claim. 01. 34-47) My invention relates to a means of drying clothes and has for one object to provide a means of blowing normal house temperature air through the clothes.

Another object of the invention is to provide means to blow the normal house air with such a velocity through the clothes that the clothes can be dried rapidly.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means whereby the clothes are tossed during the process so as to expose all surfaces and to prevent matting.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means of drying clothes at temperatures that are safe for rayons and delicate materials.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means for drying clothes that will preserve the quality of the materials dried.

Another object of the invention is to provide a humidifying means in a house where the air becomes too dry when heated by mechanical methods.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means of operating a clothes dryer with a 110 volt circuit.

Another object is to provide a means of drying clothes without a heating element, thereby decreasing the wattage required.

Another object is to provide a means of drying clothes inexpensively.

Other objects will appear from time to time throughout the specification and claim.

I have illustrated my invention more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a vertical section of the dryer taken on a line through the middle of the dryer from front to back;

Figure 2 is a vertical section from side to side of the dryer taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an interior view of the clothes container showing the movement of the clothes.

Like parts are indicated by like parts throughout the specification and drawings.

My clothes dryer consists of a centrifugal blower operated to create a pressure of the order of one and onehalf inch static and a volume of some two thousand cubic feet per minute. The blower is placed on the floor, and the frame is arranged to support a revolving drum. The drum revolves slowly for the purpose of exposing the clothes on alternate surfaces to the blast of air. This differs definitely from the tumbling idea that operates by a rotating drum and gravity.

With this apparatus the static pressure will blow clothes exposed to the pressure upwards against the top of the drum, the drum being perforated. The bottom portion of the drum extends down into a plenum chamber which is formed by the outlet housing of the blower. So it may be seen that clothes that are being held upward against the upper periphery of the drum by the static pressure, when this upper portion revolves so that as the portion that was uppermost moves downward to the plenum chamber, the draft of air will hit the clothes and blow them up to the top of the drum again.

Patented May 3, 1955 In Figure 1, 1 indicates the opening whereby the air is sucked into the machine by the blower wheel 2. The blower wheel 2 consists of a circular arrangement of blades 3 which by its rotating motion creates a centrifugal movement of the air and consequently sucking air in through the opening 1. The blower wheel 2 creates a static pressure in the space 4. From space 4, the air is driven through the opening 5 of a rotating drum 6 and out the openings 5 on the upper side of the rotating drum 6.

The air which is driven so swiftly through the drum 6 picks up moisture in the clothes and carries the moisture into the house. This moisture is a healthful adjunct to the house air as the air in a house in winter is usually too dry.

The blower Wheel 2 is driven by a motor 7 by means of pulleys 8 and 9 and a shaft 10. By converting from the large pulley 8 to the smaller pulley 9, the speed of the blower wheel 2 is stepped up considerably. A wall 11 and a wall 12 and a bottom 13 confine the air from,

the blower wheel 2 and direct it in an upwardly direction.

A motorfor the clothes drum 6 is mounted on the wall 14. The motor 15 transmits power through a pulley 16 and a pulley 17 and a shaft 18 to the clothes drum 6. For the clothes drum the power is transmitted from a small pulley 16 to a large pulley 17 so as to rotate the drum slowly.

The periphery of the drum 6 consists of some perforated or mesh material so that it is completely provided with small openings 5. By means of a sealing wall 19 and 20 the air from the blower wheel 2 is forced in the part of the drum which is down and through the clothes in the drum and out the perforations 5 which are in an upward position on the drum. The drum 6 revolves on the shaft 18 closely fitted with the housing seals 21. On one side of the drum 6 is a door 22 through which the clothes are inserted and removed.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows:

By using warm dry air common to houses in winter to provide the heat required for evaporation, the condition of the air in the house is improved because the machine is acting as a humidifier for the house. Thus it may be seen that the volume of air that we put through the clothes is serving a double purpose.

In the summertime, the machine will be operated with open windows and thus the excess moisture is dissipated to the outdoors.

By the use of a blower and motor, we are able to do the job effectively in a short time, using a wattage of half or less than the amount necessary in the type of dryers that use a hot element to dry clothes by actually baking the water out of the clothes.

With this dryer the wattage required is such that it is adaptable to the conventional volt circuit whereas with the hot element type, where the clothes have water baked out, it is essential to use a 220 volt, threewire system. This new device permits plugging into the ordinary wall socket.

Another great advantage is that by using it at normal household temperatures, one is able to dry rayons and other delicate fabrics which intense heat would destroy.

When the blower is put into motion, it sucks the regular house air in and drives it through the perforated container where the wet clothes are held. This perforated container is rotating so that the clothes are tossed about by the air. The clothes rotate with the container until they are in the line of the air from the blower. The blower then drives the clothes against whatever part of the cylinder is uppermost. This process is continued until the clothes have reached the desired state of dryness.

Thus by my arrangement the clothes are floated on an upwardly moving column of air. They never rest on the bottom of the drum and for this reason and because of the porosity of the individual articles and the air space between the articles, there is a free movement of air through and around the various articles, thus etfective drying takes place. Moreover because the clothes are supported on the air blast by the mechanical elements of the-structure, a minimum of rubbing and abrasion and lint forming takes place.

The function of the drum in which the clothes are held is to keep them from being blown away from the air column and to insure that they will be turned over and over as they are subjected to the air column, thus presenting constantly new parts of the clothing to the impact of the air blast 'in different directions with respect to each cloth article.

The pressure of the wash or clothing on the upper side of the drum is, of course, present as otherwise the wash would be blown away but the pressure of contact and the compacting of the mass of material to be cleaned is much less than the pressure would be if these articles were supported on the bottom of the drum and held against it by gravity.

I claim:

In combination, a rotating drum of foraminous readily air pervious material, a housing for the drum, an apertured partition wall extending laterally of the housing into sealing relationship with the periphery of the drum, a substantial area of the lower side of the drum on both sides of the vertical axis extending downwardly through the aperture, means for forcing air upwardly through the drum and for discharging it from the top of the drum, means on the inner periphery of the drum adapted to propel clothes supported on the air current at the .top of the drum laterally out of line with the current to carry said clothes downwardly and to propel them positively into line with the air current along the lower periphery of the drum.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

